I’ve had several conversations with new clients over the past month that go something like this:
Client: ‘I’m fed up with seeing the competition win all this new business when they aren’t nearly as good as us. Our services and products are so much better. Our customer service is far better. And we’re even a bit cheaper.
Their marketing is super-cheesy AND they’re really pushy – they’re all over our clients like a bad rash. And yet they get all the business. We just don’t understand it.’
Me: ‘And what are you doing to combat this?’
Client: ‘Well we’ve been working on a marketing/sales campaign for the last six months but we haven’t quite finished it yet.’
Ah.
And there’s the answer I knew I’d hear.
We get on our high horses about the competition all the time. We say that they can’t deliver to the same high standards that we can. We declare that they’re a ‘pale imitation’ of us. And yet none of this matters one bit.
Why?
Because we can’t sell to anyone if we’re invisible.
Yes, the competition’s marketing might be cheesy as a ripe Stilton. Yes, their aggressive sales approach is so 80s it should be wearing shoulder pads and a pager. Yes, it’s not the way to build long-term relationships.
But still, they are doing SOMETHING where you are doing NOTHING.
Clients cannot buy from you if they don’t know what you’ve got to offer or why you’re so great.
If they don’t even know you exist.
And whilst you are procrastinating about that marketing campaign (‘it’s not quite perfect yet you see’), they are closing sales.
Clients don’t always have the time to go looking for the perfect solution – instead they often choose the fastest and most readily available. The one they know about.
As I tell my clients, it’s not necessarily the fanciest, cleverest or most expensive marketing that gets results. It’s often just the marketing that sees the light of day.
And that marketing brings visibility.
And that visibility brings sales.
So…stop moaning about the competition and look at what one action you can do TODAY to make your business more visible. Go do it!